ode to 2009

As if you haven't seen enough "top tens", "highlights of 2009", "most watched", etc's on the news this past 24 hours, here is our most memorable and honorable awards for 2009...

For the biggest confidence boost, this goes to Jaiden with no training wheels!

For best performance to Alyssa and "hello audience!"

For the farthest freefall to Jaiden for his multiple jumps from the pier at Priest Lake (I think this could probably also win the confidence boost award too!)

For the best breakfast to Daddy for his crazy pancake faces...

Best bouquet to Alyssa's unending dandelion bouquets...

Best evil and fake laugh to Jaiden

Best or shall I say biggest and happiest smile to Alyssa who always enjoys the carousel rides!

Best 1st goal (how did you guess? is it because he's the only one who plays?)

Best late night in the dark art...

Best dressed... (this was hard to choose, there are so many wild outfits!)

Best hairdo... (and you thought it would be Alyssa)

The final award for "where is (insert name of either child) and why is he/she so quiet?"  goes to this memorable moment on Christmas day discovering Alyssa in her room, in her underwear (edited for web) having eaten ALL of her chocolate candy from Santa (notice foil wrappers all over the floor!)...

Happy New Year! Here is to another exciting year!

tempting

Should I or shouldn't I? That was the question I pondered when I walked into Jaiden's room to give him his kiss right before I go to bed...

Jaiden discovered dominoes tonight. After we tucked him in and said goodnight, his little night adventure included an intricate task (mind you this is in the dark and by the light of his nightlight) to create another stellar piece of art...

Hey and by the way, where are all my devoted blog readers? Why haven't any of you pestered me to post lately? Not to worry, I managed to crash my computer creating a special collage, then noticing how far behind I was I felt quite daunted but now I am thinking I better show you my photos for each day in December (I did manage to keep up with that even though I lagged on the blog a day) but stay tuned ... the special 2009 awards will be up next.

please just one nice one...

Mommy: Please, oh please can Mommy have one cute photo of the two of you?

Jaiden: Ugggghh (sigh)

Alyssa: Sure (wink, wink!)

Mommy: one more try, please give me your best...

It's as good as it gets.

Merry Christmas!

curtains for a mouse

This afternoon, I was finishing up a project for Alyssa's Christmas present and Alyssa came downstairs.
She asked "what are you doing Mommy?"

Me: Sewing curtains

A: Why are they so small?

M: They are curtains for a mouse.

A: Oh (and now very intrigued).

So she helped me finish these adorable curtains...

... for the mice who will arrive tomorrow night but she will probably correct me and tell me that they are the kitty cat family, not mice!

The before photo when I decided to gut the house and do a complete remodel in less than 3 nights before Christmas... but that's another blog posting at another time!

to the north pole

Discovery Days was the North Pole this week and as we have done each year for the past 3, we ventured over to go to the North Pole. We did several crafts but the best was the face painting... I happened to have my camera with me and couldn't resist!

Jaiden painting a black beard and mustache...

Alyssa is trying to make a super BIG smile!

After Discovery Days, we proceeded to do a few errands around town including getting some ice cream... now that was interesting ... face paint and ice cream all over their cute faces!

snow boy

Last night before I went to bed, I snuck into Jaiden's room to kiss him while he sleeps when I turned to leave and thought didn't we clean his room before he went to bed? And then I realized what I was looking at by the light of his nightlight...

I took several photos last night and had to lighten this up so you could see but in the morning when I said I liked his new robot boy, he said "no mommy, he's snow boy!"

just in case you didn't notice snow boy's face and neck! Who would have thought all those little balls would come in handy one day?!

traditions

One of my favorite traditions each year is unwrapping all my ornaments that I was given over the years and reminiscing, chuckling over what year they were given ... well, lucky for me, my Oma and Opa are carrying the tradition with our kids and this evening, we got the package with their new ornament for the year.

Jaiden's ornament is a cheetah playing soccer... he hung his ornament right away and wanted his photo with it. His ornament reminded me of the pig playing soccer I got in 1980... hmmm, he got a cheetah resembling fast and mine was a pig resembling?? - what exactly is that supposed to mean?

Alyssa's ornament was a ballerina of which she hung multiple times around the tree and finally said "I want to dance with her" and played some more... this also reminded me of my sweet ballerina ornament I got in 1972!

Thank you Oma and Opa!

rocketstar Alyssa

... and this is December 13th...

we were serenaded by a pink fairy singing into a stomp rocket rocket.

I must say it did make a fabulous looking mic.

december 12th

Greetings vampire alyssa!

Perfect attire for the Hemophilia Christmas party this afternoon!

Mommy, how did he get pants that long?

Lunch... and probably dinner too!

I made a HUGE mistake yesterday and we drove 1 hr 15 mins for the Hemophilia party to discover it wasn't until 4 pm... we were 3 hours early. Record time for me ... and probably Dennis too! So we made a trip to a candy factory where they were given these beautiful and big lollipops.

Finally, what they were waiting for all afternoon to sit on Santa's lap. Santa didn't arrive until 6 pm so they had been waiting since 1 pm... very patient they were.

So the post is a day late because afterwards I went out with my dear friend to scrapbook and didn't get home until 11:30 pm! But this was our December 12th. A relaxing morning (finally), a crazy story of Mommy not checking the party time, a long, long wait for our Christmas party, a trip to a candy factory with lots of entertainment and goodies, and the long awaited arrival of Santa. (ps. we will be going to our traditional Santa this week for the professional photo but in the meantime, here is this one!)

one eyed rudolph

... and this is what I found in Alyssa's backpack yesterday. I am not sure that she intended Rudolph to have one eye (you can never tell what Alyssa is up to next) as it appears one eye may have fallen off but I can't find it so we have a one-eyed Rudolph to add to our beautiful collection of artwork decorating our house!

december

found this in Jaiden's poem folder this evening

such adorable snowflakes and the sun trying to peek through the clouds ...

did I mention yesterday morning was -11 degrees and the kids somehow convinced me they needed to ride their bikes to school despite that all pavement is covered in snow and ice? did I mention I must be crazy to have agreed? today, I took charge and we walked at a balmy 1 degrees!

warm frosty

This morning I walked in to wake Jaiden, stepped over this and it wasn't until I was walking out of the room did I realize what he had created last night in the dark before going to bed!! I love the paper scrap smile and bouncy ball eyes but the best is his trick track body!

hansel and gretel

"In a house of gingerbread and sugar candy,

Life would be fine and dandy.

Morning, noon and night,

We could satisfy our appetite."

quoted from my childhood storybook of  Hansel and Gretel.

Daddy's special treat ... an afternoon with the kids and building the gingerbread house.

Their finished house... we just might hear a voice from inside say

"Nibble, nibble like a mouse.

who is nibbling at my house?"

hide and seek?

Hide and seek ... or...

... hanging decorations?

It was hanging decorations ... although I think that was the excuse to crawl behind and under the tree. The kids did a great job of decorating the tree, unfortunately, I will have to post a photo later as I didn't think to take one of the fully decorated tree.

christmas tree traditions

Our Christmas tree tradition involves visiting our local Blue Ribbon Farm, picking a Charlie Brown tree, running through the trees while they prepare our tree and picking a candy cane.

Although, this year we broke tradition - we didn't buy from the Charlie Brown section because it was incredibly depleted already!! My photos of our tree didn't turn out so well, it was madly snowing and this new camera is soooo good that it captured reflections of the snowflakes instead of my subjects... who were dashing from the camera... however, in the end this was my favorite photo for the day. It was quite a fun adventure and a wonderful memory of it dreamily snowing, lots of silly play and very cold at 15 degrees! Brrrrrrr....

hobby horse trot

Alyssa's first official ballet and tap recital was this evening and in short, it was hilarious. The top left photo is from the ballet portion but the hobby horse trot (the tap portion) stole the show... well, Alyssa stole the show on that one ... literally.  First, she wasn't supposed to have her hobby horse between her legs, it was supposed to be standing upright next to her so she could show off her tap steps... and then the ultimate was how she stood their looking for us in the crowd, smiling, waving and saying "hi mommy!" but the part that made everyone in the studio laugh was...

"hello audience!"

and there she stood with her hobby horse in between her legs, waving to everyone as if they were all there to see her perform (or not perform!).

I loved every minute of watching her but next time I have to remember to bring a tripod as no flash was allowed which made it super tricky to get good photos.

holiday yumminess

Today's post is the infamous chex mix holiday yumminess. I made a batch earlier this week and the kids gobbled it up (it was gone by last night)... so this afternoon I taught Jaiden how to make his own and of course, anything involving baking or being in the kitchen, Alyssa miraculously appears ready to help even if it isn't always helpful.

 Their finished product... mmmm, mmmm!

ps. thanks Papi for making it at Thanksgiving... the kids really LOVE it!

pss. did anyone notice my awesome overlay? it is from designer digitals called 25 days of december by ali edwards and can be found here. yep, you will be seeing more of these subtle touches as i get more proficient... totally loving digital scrapbooking stuff!

tinsel trees

December 3rd brings you 3 photos but not because it's the 3rd ... I just couldn't decide so today you get 3 photos of the kids decorating their own tinsel trees in their rooms...

Jaiden very intense on hanging his ornaments...

While I was helping Jaiden, I discovered Alyssa had tried to hang her Christmas balls without ornament hooks and as usual she put all the ornaments on one tiny branch!

Now with her ornament hooks, she decides it is better to space them out a little!

Merry cheer!

dreaming of a white christmas...

Watching the snow falling... maybe it will be a white Christmas!

headless kindergartner

I must admit I had this grandiose plan of capturing the magic of December and presenting you with a lovely photo of Christmas cheer on the first day of December. I thought I would capture the kids opening their first (of 25) advent window and delicately eating their chocolate but instead the first of December was greeted early in the morning by the headless kindergartner.

Yep, the headless kindergartner. A true Scooby doo mystery. Jaiden walked this way at Alyssa's school from the classroom to the car, then rode home to our house and proceeded to walk this way to his own school, and only stopped because the first bell rang and we had to run the short remaining distance. (Thank goodness he didn't try to ride his bike today!) Had it not been for the first bell, he probably would have greeted his teacher this way!

So to that grandiose plan of mine, I am embracing the silliness AND magic of December. Maybe tomorrow's posting will resemble a more holiday feel?